Sugar Act.
The popular name of an act of the British Parliament, officially
known as the molasses act. In 1733 the British government laid a
prohibitive duty on all sugar and molasses imported into North
America from the islands of France, for the purpose of compelling
the people of New England particularly to purchase their sugar and
molasses from the planters in the English West Indies. In 1763, when
Lord Grenville became prime minister, he introduced into Parliament
two measures of vast importance to the American colonists. The first
was the revival of the old molasses act; the second was the
notorious STAMP ACT. The immediate
effects of the reinforcement of the molasses act were seen in the
trade relations between the
New England colonies and the
French
West Indies. The New England people depended largely upon the
products of their fisheries, and a considerable portion found a
ready market in the French West Indies. Those possessions in turn
depended upon the molasses raised therein, and the French
government, in order to force a market for the sugar, forbade the
planters paying for the fish with anything except molasses. The
trade between the New England colonies and the French West Indies,
accordingly, becoming a matter of great importance to the people of
both sections, and the reinforcements of the original act could have
but two results: either the New-Englanders would have to pay the
exorbitant duty on the French West Indies molasses, or have it
seized without ceremony or compensation.

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